Professional Leadership

Research Interests

Selected Publications

K. Bischoping (2014) “Identity and Mutability in Family Narratives about the Third Reich,” pp.56-73 in Ivana Maček (ed.), Engaging with Violence: New Paradigms in the Study of Genocide and Mass Political Violence. London: Routledge.

Current Research Projects

Oral Histories of Lei Feng

Summary:Little known in the West, kindly soldier Lei Feng (1940-1962) was established as a Chinese national hero by Mao Tsedong in 1963. The Chinese curriculum has since exhorted even its youngest students to “Learn from Lei Feng!” This project examines how Lei Feng is remembered by different generations in China, and how questions about the truth of these histories are taken up in China and North America.

Cultural Work in the Recession

Summary:An exploration of the career trajectories of precarious workers in the cultural industry. Specific inquiries include: an examination of the health and safety implications of doing cultural work (with L. Quinlan); a reflexive analysis of how insider and outsider status in the cultural work community influence research conclusions (with L. Quinlan); and a discourse analysis of the reasons why cultural workers forget certain jobs that they have done (with A. King).

Sociological Books and their Covers

Summary:This project in intertextuality involves visual sociology analysis of the covers of sociology's classics from around the world. A first inquiry, with R. Abdelbaki, K. Ahmed, K. Banasiak, and D. Gul Kaya, compared covers of Edward W. Said's Orientalism from Islamicate contexts with those from non-Islamicate contexts. A second inquiry, with S. Chapman-Nyaho and R. Raby, looks at how covers of Discipline and Punish can transcend a narrow focus on the prison and the Panopticon.

Role: Organizer

Generations and Memory: Continuity and Change

Summary:In oral history and memory research, the transmission of memories from one generation to another has been understood to be a key mechanism of continuity in families, communities, nations, and diasporas. At the same time, sharp divides between generations and their memories and understandings of the past have been understood to reflect and drive social change. This special issue of Oral History Forum d'histoire orale, edited by Katherine Bischoping (York University, Canada) and Yumi Ishii (The University of Tokyo, Japan), focuses on how generations act as sites of both continuity and change – a question that itself invites interrogation of how the concept of generation is variously understood and constructed inside and outside academe.

Selected Publications

K. Bischoping (2014) “Identity and Mutability in Family Narratives about the Third Reich,” pp.56-73 in Ivana Maček (ed.), Engaging with Violence: New Paradigms in the Study of Genocide and Mass Political Violence. London: Routledge.

All Publications

Book Chapters

K. Bischoping (2014) “Identity and Mutability in Family Narratives about the Third Reich,” pp.56-73 in Ivana Maček (ed.), Engaging with Violence: New Paradigms in the Study of Genocide and Mass Political Violence. London: Routledge.

Professional Leadership

Research Interests:

Current Research Projects

Oral Histories of Lei Feng

Summary:Little known in the West, kindly soldier Lei Feng (1940-1962) was established as a Chinese national hero by Mao Tsedong in 1963. The Chinese curriculum has since exhorted even its youngest students to “Learn from Lei Feng!” This project examines how Lei Feng is remembered by different generations in China, and how questions about the truth of these histories are taken up in China and North America.

Cultural Work in the Recession

Summary:An exploration of the career trajectories of precarious workers in the cultural industry. Specific inquiries include: an examination of the health and safety implications of doing cultural work (with L. Quinlan); a reflexive analysis of how insider and outsider status in the cultural work community influence research conclusions (with L. Quinlan); and a discourse analysis of the reasons why cultural workers forget certain jobs that they have done (with A. King).

Sociological Books and their Covers

Summary:This project in intertextuality involves visual sociology analysis of the covers of sociology's classics from around the world. A first inquiry, with R. Abdelbaki, K. Ahmed, K. Banasiak, and D. Gul Kaya, compared covers of Edward W. Said's Orientalism from Islamicate contexts with those from non-Islamicate contexts. A second inquiry, with S. Chapman-Nyaho and R. Raby, looks at how covers of Discipline and Punish can transcend a narrow focus on the prison and the Panopticon.

Role: Organizer

Generations and Memory: Continuity and Change

Summary:In oral history and memory research, the transmission of memories from one generation to another has been understood to be a key mechanism of continuity in families, communities, nations, and diasporas. At the same time, sharp divides between generations and their memories and understandings of the past have been understood to reflect and drive social change. This special issue of Oral History Forum d'histoire orale, edited by Katherine Bischoping (York University, Canada) and Yumi Ishii (The University of Tokyo, Japan), focuses on how generations act as sites of both continuity and change – a question that itself invites interrogation of how the concept of generation is variously understood and constructed inside and outside academe.

All Publications

Book Chapters

K. Bischoping (2014) “Identity and Mutability in Family Narratives about the Third Reich,” pp.56-73 in Ivana Maček (ed.), Engaging with Violence: New Paradigms in the Study of Genocide and Mass Political Violence. London: Routledge.